The aim for the VC200 is a two-seater volocopter with the following aircraftperformance:

• a speed of over 54 kn (100 km/h)

• a minimum flight altitude of 6500 ft

• a take-off weight of 450 kg

• more than one hour flight time

Is it supposed to be a "flying car" type of thing or a "look at my new toy" kind of thing? 100km/hr is fine for my current 15 minute drive to work (would be about 3 minutes without traffic lights and stop signs) but it seems awfully slow for anything longer like hitting up my friends house 4 hours a way by car (flight time would ~equal drive time)

Fizpez:Is it supposed to be a "flying car" type of thing or a "look at my new toy" kind of thing? 100km/hr is fine for my current 15 minute drive to work (would be about 3 minutes without traffic lights and stop signs) but it seems awfully slow for anything longer like hitting up my friends house 4 hours a way by car (flight time would ~equal drive time)

I don't know but those aren't demonstrated numbers they're just design specs. It's possible they won't even meet those.

Actually, it makes a lot of sense to use individual motors for each rotor. It reduces the amount of complex shafting and transmissions found on a typical helicopter, and it would appear that directional and pitch control would simply be a matter of speed contol of individual rotors. I still don't see how they are going to get enough electrical power to lift the farking thing though.

Old_Chief_Scott:I still don't see how they are going to get enough electrical power to lift the farking thing though.

If lithium batteries have enough oopmf to start a 787's engines, they can lift this bird. If they design it right, they might even get a bit of extra thrust, however fleeting, when the damn things catch fire.

Old_Chief_Scott:Actually, it makes a lot of sense to use individual motors for each rotor. It reduces the amount of complex shafting and transmissions found on a typical helicopter, and it would appear that directional and pitch control would simply be a matter of speed contol of individual rotors.

On-Off:way south: /I'd have thought a quad rotor rig would be plenty./But I would have swapped out the battery for a gas generator.

so, basicaly, an electric transmission?The perfect transmission, exept for the weight... that's why it is oly used on ships, submarine, locomotives and the like. Too heavy for tanks.

Hence why I'm not a millionaire flying-car inventor.But the issue is reliability when using rotors as your only source of lift, and a mechanical transmission is problematic.Electric motors are compact and reliable, you just need a better power source.There isn't anything wrong with the German idea except the limitation of their battery.

/Mollers idea was to make compact gas motors and carry a dozen of them hooked up directly to fans./he had viable idea, but failed business model.

way south:There isn't anything wrong with the German idea except the limitation of their battery.

a lot of small fast spinning rotors have a far inferior efficiency compared to one big rotor with anticouple or two big rotor. This thing will always be far behind conventional helicopters no matter what progress in electric engines or battery are made.Now, helicopters are the most demanding when it come to power/weight ratio of the power-source, and electric power is still far behind piston-engines...Maybe a very expensive and dangerous toy to hop around your lawn, not much